If the side with the pawn can reach this type of position, they can forcibly win the game.
Rook and any number of pawns endgames, which occur in 8–10% of all games,[3][4] may simplify to the Lucena position.
The earliest preserved discussion of the position is in Alessandro Salvio's Il Puttino (1634), a romance on the career of the chess player Leonardo da Cutro, and it is in that form that it is given here.
[7] It is likely that the error arose from the sixth edition of the Handbuch des Schachspiels (1880), in which editor Constantin Schwede incorrectly attributed the position to "Lucena 96", possibly as a result of confusion over the references in Antonius van der Linde's 1874 work Das Schachspiel des XVI.
White's aim is to either promote his pawn or else compel Black to give up his rook for it – either result will leave White with an overwhelming material advantage and a straightforward win.
White has managed to advance his pawn to the seventh rank, but it is prevented from queening because his own king is in the way.
[10] Aron Nimzowitsch described this way for White to shield their king and pawn with their rook as "building a bridge".
If Black abandons this defense, the white rook can build a bridge on the fifth rank.
If Black is to move in the diagrammed position, he can prevent the white rook from going to the fourth rank, but then White still wins: (The black rook is not sufficiently far away to keep checking: if 5...Ra4+ then 6.Kb5 wins.)
Threatening to promote the pawn, Black can just delay it with checks.
After 1.Rd1+ Ke7 2.Rd4 above, after for example, White can still carry out his plan as above, or he can win with the simple which chases the black king away and allows the pawn to promote.